The top video destination online is
YouTube by a large margin – other video watching sites like Hulu
are much further behind YouTube in the number of users. YouTube is
constantly working to improve its service to keep its edge and help
bring in more advertisers.

YouTube already showcased
HTML5-based video player demo, but the video site reports that users
have been asking it to do more with HTML5. To give the viewers what
they want, YouTube has announced a new experimental HTML5 supported
video player.

YouTube engineers wrote on the official
YouTube blog, "HTML5 is a new web standard that is gaining
popularity rapidly and adds many new features to your web experience.
Most notably for YouTube users, HTML5 includes support for video and
audio playback. This means that users with an HTML5 compatible
browser, and support for the proper audio and video codecs can watch
a video without needing to download a browser plugin."

There
are a few caveats to the experimental player right now. The biggest
is that there are a relative few browsers that support HTML5 at this
time. YouTube lists Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer running
ChromeFrame as being compatible. The capabilities will be expanded
later to include new capabilities. The new video player can be used
by visiting TestTube
if your browser is compatible. Other issues include the lack of
support for videos with ads, captions, or annotations.